My daughter and I decided to try a Papa Dino’s pizza late this afternoon. She drove me to Papa Dino’s. Papa Dino’s looked the same as it did when I visited many years ago. The smell when I went inside did have the good smell of cheese.

My daughter stayed behind in the car to wait for me, because she knew I would be asking questions, and I embarrass her with all of my questions.

I went up to the counter to be waited on and it was like it has always been at Papa Dino’s. I forgot what size pizzas they sold, but noted they were 12” and 14” pizzas. I asked the man that waited on me if he was the owner and he said his parents were, but he ran Papa Dino’s. I then asked him if he was a Groff and he said no that Groff’s doesn’t have any part in the Papa Dino’s business anymore. I told the man I had visited the Papa Dino’s on Lititz Pike many times years ago, but didn’t tell him that I also had visited the Papa Dino’s on Lincoln Highway before. I ordered a 14” cheese pizza and asked if I could take pictures. He said yes I could take pictures.

I took pictures of the pieman that was opening the dough balls and the other pictures posted below. It can be seen what kind of sauce they used on their pizzas. I wasn’t close enough, so I am not exactly sure if there are different kind of products in that brand, or what they are. The big block of cheese is also in the pictures.

After I watched, asked some questions and while the pieman was making my pizza, I asked the man if I could purchase any dough balls. He said yes. I then purchased two dough balls for 12” pizzas. Right after my pizza was finished and my number was called I asked the man if I could purchase some of their cheese for the dough balls I wanted to try at home. He just looked at me and at first couldn't decide, but after a moment, then added he would also sell me the sauce for 2 pizzas at the same price as the cheese would be. I thought man am I lucky today to be able to purchase the dough balls, sauce and cheese for two pizzas. I then asked what temperature I should set my home oven at to bake the pizzas and he said 400 degrees F. I didn’t time the bakes of the pizzas, but they sure didn’t seem like they took really long. I didn’t want to do too many things the first time I visited.

After bringing the pizza, dough balls, sauce and cheese home, I tasted the cheese and it sure tastes all cheddar to me. The pizzas also tasted like I had remembered years ago. It was almost like a Mack’s pizza, except for the sauce is a little sweeter and there isn’t the oregano that Mack’s uses.

I told the one lady behind the counter that my brother that lives in Colorado also remembers Papa Dino’s and really liked their pies when he lived here. The lady said they have many customers (that have lived in this area) from all over the country, and they do come back to Papa Dino’s when they are in the area because Papa Dino‘s pizza is so unique.

I thought it was interesting that they were making some parbaked pizzas for customers. There parbaked pizzas sure looked better than Mack’s. When they put pepperoni on a pie they first bake the pie with cheese and sauce, then it is taken out of the oven and the pieman applies the pepperoni with more cheese. The sauce looks thin when it is applied with a spoon and although Papa Dino’s doesn’t apply the sauce in a whole spiral pattern all over the pizza, it still turns out almost the same as a Mack’s pizza.

Now all I want to know is what I should do with the dough balls, sauce and cheese. Should I freeze them all and then proceed more on another thread, before I try to bake one of the dough balls on Tuesday? I also have to weight the dough balls for the 12” pizzas. I haven’t done that yet. The dough balls almost look like a Mack’s dough balls. I am not sure if I want to try and clone Papa Dino’s pizza, but it would be interesting, but don't think I could because there are no Nutrition Facts. The Baker Pride oven looked to me to be running at about 425 degrees F to bake the pizzas.

Video of pieman opening the dough ball. As can be seen the pieman does press on the dough ball a lot before he opens it, just like Mack’s.

The two different dough balls for 12” pizzas had two different dough ball weights. The one weighed 347 grams, or 12.2 ounces and the other one weighed 338 grams, or 11.9 ounces. The man did flour the bottom of the dough balls so they wouldn’t stick to the paper. I tried to brush off as much flour as I could with my hand, but didn’t get all the extra flour off. Both dough balls don’t look like they are fermented very much and both dough balls feel low in hydration.

I really don’t know when these dough balls were supposed to be used. The man got them out of some kind of refrigerator in the right side room.

norma, thanks for the info on papa dinos! i remember going there almost 20 years ago. The pizza has not changed much. it was ok, and i would get it for my family every couple of months. nothing to rave about. i would get tired of it and go elsewhere for a year or so when i was living in lancaster. it reminds me that lancaster never had any really good pizza places as far as i remember. i am glad you are at the market cranking out a great pie! mark

norma, thanks for the info on papa dinos! i remember going there almost 20 years ago. The pizza has not changed much. it was ok, and i would get it for my family every couple of months. nothing to rave about. i would get tired of it and go elsewhere for a year or so when i was living in lancaster. it reminds me that lancaster never had any really good pizza places as far as i remember. i am glad you are at the market cranking out a great pie! mark

Mark,

I haven’t had Papa Dino’s for a lot of years. I always remembered Papa Dino’s tasting like a Mack’s pizza. I am not sure, but think it is because I like the greasy cheddar taste on both Papa Dino’s and Mack’s. I do like Papa Dino’s pizzas, even though they are different than the pizzas I make at market. Which Papa Dino’s did you go to almost 20 years ago? Did you go to the one on Lincoln Highway like I did today, or the one that used to be on Lititz Pike?

Any idea on the brand of cheddar? Looks like the blocks are just sitting out as I had suspected. LOL

Pete,

I agree, that the Trenton tomato pie heritage is evident in Papa Dino’s pizzas, much like Mack’s. The way the sauce is applied gives each bite a different taste from the cheese to sauce ratio. I never watched how Papa Dino’s applied the sauce before. Do you remember if they did apply the sauce this way before?

I am not sure if Papa Dino’s used all Furmano’s sauce. I am also not sure what was in those boxes, but the next time I go to the restaurant store I will check their boxes of Furmano’s sauces. If you look to the right of the one picture at Reply 6 http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,20093.msg197381.html#msg197381 it looks like there is Saporito Super Heavy Pizza Sauce from Stanislaus that might be used also. If you look left from those Furmano’s boxes it also appears to be more tomato products on the left of the filing cabinet. I can’t see what that is on the left of the filing cabinet. I use Saporito at my pizza stand. I have to taste the sauce today from Papa Dino’s. I also have to weigh the sauce and cheese to see how much they weigh. I am not exactly sure if the man gave me the exact amounts of sauce and cheese for two 12” pizzas, but he said he did.

The cheddar from the block tastes like AMPI mild white cheddar to me. I don’t know if AMPI makes mild white cheddar in 42 lb. blocks. When I go to market today I have to cut a piece of the AMPI mild white cheddar (from the 5 lb. loaf) and bring it home to grate it to see if it tastes like the Papa Dino’s grated cheese, before it is baked on a pizza. I have to ask my distributor if they supply any products to Papa Dino’s. That way maybe I can narrow down what cheddars my distributors carries if Papa Dino’s does use my distributor. Yes, part blocks of cheddar were sitting out. I am not to sure if they were there when I was first watching the pieman though. I looked to that side room and didn’t see them. The second time I looked there were there. I am not sure if I first missed the cheddar sitting there, because I was trying to take everything in and also taking pictures. I must have looked pretty odd trying to do all those things at once, but I tried to stay cool.

To the left of the picture I posted of the front of Papa Dino’s is the big trash dumpster. I didn’t want to look in there yesterday, but might in the future. I also didn’t look yesterday, but don’t think there are any windows on that side. I could just be throwing some trash away if I get the nerve to go to that dumpster. If you have a chance to visit Papa Dino’s let me know what you find out and if you think their pizzas still taste the same. My opinion is they do taste the same, but my mind might be clouded since it has been many years since I tasted their pizzas.

If I find time, I might attempt to make a Mack’s clone 12” pizza on Tuesday and try out Papa Dino’s cheese on half of the pie and the AMPI mild white cheddar on the other half of the pizza. My memory is better about slices of Mack’s and Manco and Manco pizzas. I think my daughter is going to Ocean City, NJ and Seaside Heights, NJ tomorrow for the day with friends. She asked me to go along, but they are going to be doing a lot in one day, so I said I didn’t want to go. I might ask her to bring me back two slices of Manco and Manco pizzas to compare to what I thought of Papa Dino’s. I had thought Papa Dino’s pies were thinner years ago, but my mind might be clouded on that too. Do you remember about how thick Papa Dino’s pizzas were? To me, Papa Dino’s slices were thicker than Mack’s or Manco and Manco slices.

I asked the man that waited on me if they still use the old recipe for everything at Papa Dino’s because I wanted to see if the pizzas tasted the same as years ago. He said yes, they use the same recipe for the dough, sauce and cheese. I don’t know how true that is though.

For anyone that might be interested, I did weigh out the Papa Dino’s cheese and sauce that I purchased for the two 12” pizzas. The sauce weighed 1 lb. 1.7 ounces, or 502 grams and the cheese weighed 1 lb. 2.3 ounces, or 519 grams. I tasted the cheese again and it still tastes like cheddar to me. I also tasted the sauce and is somewhat sweet to my taste buds. It is also very thin. I wonder if Mack’s also uses a really thin sauce like this. I have watched at Mack’s many times, when the piemen were applying the sauce with the hose and could not ever tell really how thin their sauce was. Maybe I have been making the Gangi sauce too thick on my Mack’s attempts. Even when I watched the pieman apply the sauce yesterday, and took the video, the sauce didn’t look as thin as when I now examined it. I now believe that my eyes can deceive me in watching either Papa Dino’s or Mack’s sauces when they are applied, in how thin they are.

I also called the manager at my distributor. I asked him if they sell the AMPI mild white cheddar in 42 lb. blocks and he said no. He knows I have been trying to clone a Mack’s pizza, so I told him about trying the Papa Dino’s pizza yesterday. I asked him if he knew what cheese, or cheeses Papa Dino’s uses and he said he doesn’t, but had heard years ago they used a blend of Swiss, cheddar and mozzarella. I asked him if he knew if that is what Papa Dino’s is still using, and he said he knows Papa Dino’s business has declined in the years since it started, and he doesn’t know now what they use now. He said the blend of cheeses that Papa Gino’s used to get many years ago was just blended for them. Maybe Peter is right that Mack’s pizza might also be using Swiss cheese in Mack’s blend of cheeses, since Papa Dino’s cheese always tasted like Mack’s pizza. I have not way of finding that out what the blend might have been in ratios of cheeses. I could pick out individual pieces of Papa Dino’s cheese and see if I can taste any difference if maybe a blend of cheeses are used, but don’t think my palate is good enough to tell any differences.

The sauce from Papa Gino’s has some oregano and pepper in it, that could be seen and tasted. There is not as much oregano as Mack’s sauce has though, but I could taste the pepper.

I fixed the picture of the sauces seen at Papa Dino’s the best I could to see if anyone can see what those sauces are. I also took a picture of Papa Dino’s sauce that I purchased for anyone that might be interested.

HMMMM, that sauce concoction should have a bit of an onion aftertaste as well, Norma, if they're following the original recipe.

Swiss cheese? I had completely forgotten about this but my lovely wife Ann prepared a stromboli once using American processed, mozzarella, and Swiss which ended up tasting very similar to the Papa Dino's cheese mix so we may very well be on to something there.

I have quite a few older Papa Dino's pizza pictures locked up on a disabled hard drive which I hope to have recovered shortly after tax refund time this winter. If I remember right, the Groffs would apply the sauce in more of a random circular pattern instead of laterally back and forth as demonstrated in your photo. Even so, the overall effect appears to be basically the same.

HMMMM, that sauce concoction should have a bit of an onion aftertaste as well, Norma, if they're following the original recipe.

Swiss cheese? I had completely forgotten about this but my lovely wife Ann prepared a stromboli once using American processed, mozzarella, and Swiss which ended up tasting very similar to the Papa Dino's cheese mix so we may very well be on to something there.

I have quite a few older Papa Dino's pizza pictures locked up on a disabled hard drive which I hope to have recovered shortly after tax refund time this winter. If I remember right, the Groffs would apply the sauce in more of a random circular pattern instead of laterally back and forth as demonstrated in your photo. Even so, the overall effect appears to be basically the same.

Pete,

I really didn’t taste any onion in the sauce, but will taste it again later. I have no idea if the Lincoln Highway Papa Dino’s is following the original recipe of Groff’s for the sauce.

Peter mentioned about the Swiss cheese on the Mack’s thread. I decided not to try it, but might revisit that post again.

Good to hear you have some older Papa Dino’s pizza pictures locked up. Hope to see them sometime. I also thought the ring first with the sauce and then laterally back and forth sauce application produced about the same results as a Mack’s pizza. Interesting to say the least.

The place I recall was on Lincoln Highway East where it first started just on the beginning of the east side of Lancaster, still in the city. Ambiance was on the ratty side, and pie was pretty good at times, not so good at other times. Norma, do you remember a little restaurant called "wish you were here" in downtown Lancaster. A crazy little place with an eccentric female head cook and owner. Great veggie fare and killer veggie gyros? Mark